


The Abyss Gazes Back

by savanting



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, No Romance, One Shot, Pre-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Short One Shot, lightsaber duels as metaphors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25472041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting
Summary: Kylo Ren has been tormented for a long time, and the one thing that can save him is reclaiming the light side of the Force. One-Shot. (Originally Posted on LiveJournal 12/28/2015)
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	The Abyss Gazes Back

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Stars Wars or any of the characters. Here is another blast from the past, back when The Last Jedi was only a twinkle in the eye. Enjoy!

_The first touch of the darkness is like greeting an old friend. To be good—to be_ their son _—has always been more burden than it was worth. What if he could tear himself away from their legacy? What if he could just—let go?_

_The whispers come in infrequent snatches, words he can barely grasp at, but he knows what it means. He is being tempted. His master doesn’t realize, the old fool, so caught up in his ideation coming to fruition. The darkness is festering, clinging to him, and no one is watching him closely enough to realize just how close he is to some unseen precipice._

_One push, and he’ll be lost._

_“Help me,” he whispers, his fingers clenching in his bed sheets at night when the whispers become a cacophony of chaos in his brain. “Please—“_

_But no one notices. He doesn’t allow them to see. Weakness is one thing he has too long a history of being associated with._

_He gazes into the abyss, and it gazes back into him, waiting._

***

The second time Kylo Ren’s saber clashes against the scavenger girl’s saber—what should be rightfully his—her last parting gift has healed into a jagged scar that is fully on display when he faces her. Through the glow of their sabers, she eyes the scar, and something like a smile ghosts across her lips.

“You’re not as conceited as I thought you were,” she taunts. “I would have thought you wouldn’t want anything to mar your pretty face.”

But he too can rise to her game. “It’s nice to know you think I have a pretty face,” he says as he uses his weight to put her more on the defensive. The sabers’ warring lights reflect in her eyes.

She realizes her mistake too late, and an angry flush rises in her cheeks. Defiance and embarrassment seem to run hand in hand with this girl; he’ll use every tactic to his advantage that he can. There are some ways in which he still cannot avoid being his father’s son.

“Even monsters can appear fair and gentle,” she snarls. He feels her tap into the force, and this time he finds himself on the defensive, trying not to inch backwards as she grits her teeth and pushes forward.

“You call me the monster,” he says, “but you’re the one trying to kill me right now, not the other way around.”

She doesn’t even blink, the indignant girl. “This is for Finn—for Han.”

The renewed force doesn’t take him by surprise, but his father’s name on her lips startles him, jars him back to that moment, as if he is reliving it anew. The thrust of his saber, the wide-eyed gaze of his father, the touch of a familiar hand on his face.

All of it is agony when he should be ice, immovable, stone.

The worst of it is that he thinks she can sense it, from the way her gaze meets his anew.

It’s like staring into a new abyss, but this one isn’t made of shadow.

It’s full of light.


End file.
